Brière returns to Habs lineup against Sens; Diaz a healthy scratch

Daniel Brière, who was a healthy scratch for the last two games, will be back in the lineup when the Canadiens face the Ottawa Senators Saturday night at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., CBC, RDS, TSN Radio 690). Defenceman Raphael Diaz will be a healthy scratch for the first time this season against the Senators with Alexei Emelin returning to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for Thursday’s game in Dallas.

“For sure I am happy to be back in the lineup,” Brière told reporters in Brossard after Saturday’s morning skate. “That’s what we train for. Whether you’re 18 or 36, it’s never easy to be scratched, and it’s always a great feeling to be on the ice.”

Brière will play centre on a line with Travis Moen and Michael Bournival.

“I always feel more at ease playing centre, but that’s secondary,” Brière said. “I’m just happy to be back in the lineup.”

Ryan White, who suffered an upper-body injury during Thursday’s game in Dallas, and George Parros, who is recovering from a concussion, didn’t take part in the morning skate.

Before the start of Saturday’s game, Canadiens forward Tomas Plekanec will receive the Molson Cup for December based on the three-star selections. Plekanec, who posted 4-2-6 totals in 14 games in December, earned one first-star selection, three second-star selections and two third-star selections to finish ahead of Carey Price and David Desharnais in the Molson Cup standings.

The Canadiens will hold their annual “Open Practice” Sunday at the Bell Centre and then the Florida Panthers will visit the Bell Centre on Monday night (7:30 p.m., TSN-HABS, RDS, TSN Radio 690).

Here’s how the lines and defence pairings looked at Saturday’s morning skate:

Bouillon actually usually plays well when he´s rested.
I am not crazy about Diaz, but I prefer him to Murray.
I would like to see Diaz with Pateryn and Bouillon alternating on the third pairing.
I think Diaz is a stopgap until a couple of the young Dmen are ready.

The Finnish kids were the better team today by far. Happens once in a blue moon. First time in twelve years we lose to them so they were due. Canada still has the most gold medals in this tourney. We have been slumping the last 4 or 5 years but it doesn’t mean Canadian hockey is in trouble. That is the same crap people spew every time we don’t win a tournament. There are other countries that are good at this sport as well. Shit happens.

they take too many penalties. and apart from the US game the goaltending wasn’t good enough. not to say goaltending was too blame but it wasn’t good enough to cover up the bone head penalties and the defensive break downs

Yes, Fins were great.
But Canadian hockey is in danger of being complacent and resting on its past laurels.
It’s no secret that there is a conservative, old boys club mentality and that needs to change.

well… it all depends what you are looking for. Same with the Habs. If the goal is to say make playoffs, then sure… Habs are not a bad team. If the goal is to make it to the medal round same here… Canadian hockey is not in trouble. It’s all relative.

Timo the goal for any Canadian team is to win gold anything less is failure. The point is we have won this tournament 5 times in a row twice. We are the most dominant nation at this tournament. We are going through a dry spell but next year we could start another run of five in a row. Nothing is wrong with Canadian hockey we are just in a little drought.
Now the Habs that is a totally different story…

jols thats the way I look at it, in one game anything can happen. I really don’t like it, when people jump on these kids as well. I just don’t get it when Canadians put down their own, especially young boys who play for them.

The same can be equalily said about all the other teams in the tourny. They too will be older and more experienced as well. I think Team Canada made a mistake in the process used to form the squad. There were no tryouts forsay. Sutter hand picked. Look what it got us.

Last year we lost 5-1 in semi’s to USA this year 5-1 to Finland in the semi’s, this year and last year two of the least skilled teams we have sent to this tourney.

The dominating team of 2005 seems like a distant memory, man that year was ridiculous we beat Sweden and Finland 8-1.. and in the final beat Russia 6-1. but we have had some very good teams since. Eberle, Subban, and Tavares years were fantastic teams to watch, That said Canada Hockey needs a restructure of its thinking and or a Canadian national development program and or team.

If they are just trolls for a reaction then i guess I bit and gave some. I often miss sarcasm and such in typed comments here. I do hope that you guys were just doing some weird schtick or troll thing I didn’t get rather than actually dumping on the kids. I don’t think they deserve getting crapped on just for losing a big game.

“The Canadians should be beating these guys. I don’t understand them being consistently unprepared mentality. All they had to do was keep their composure and eventually they would get rolling. When Drouin scored I thought the floodgates would open. Instead he goes and gets a 12 minute penalty…just mind boggling.”

I think its comments like this that outline the problem with Canada… during the pretourny games, and RR games, there were some troubling performances, however everyone and their grandmother would say “It’s just an exhibition game, You’ll see what Canada is made of in the RR” then RR games came around and it turned into “Well These games don’t mean much, it’s just preparation for the knockout games”

now its a knockout game, and Canada is still suffering from shoddy defence, horrendous passing.. Bad puck decisions, and bad penalties. But once one goal comes in the mentality is “alright now we’re guaranteed goals” I think Team Canada (Jr’s and adult Hockey teams)needs to seriously take a look at the way Team Canada perceives their skill compared to the rest of the world. Once they get that Canadian Deficiency out of their system, i think that Team Canada will perform much better in these types of tournaments… Just my 2 cents

Definitely not, but the reffing was poor, specially that penalty shot – they let Teravainen in so easily. Meh, whatever. Canada was outplayed, the bad reffing was just salt in the wound. But I’m glad we have Lehkonen and Fucale though.

The Canadians should be beating these guys. I don’t understand them being consistently unprepared mentality. All they had to do was keep their composure and eventually they would get rolling. When Drouin scored I thought the floodgates would open. Instead he goes and gets a 12 minute penalty…just mind boggling.

Losing possession left and right. Trying to get thru everyone individually. Positioning is ridiculous.
No one wants to just shoot.
Kids are playing a bad type of desperate.
pass timing is non existent.
but they want it. Just don’t know how to go about getting it.
no confidence. Look like they have already been beaten mentally.

When Canada would lose in the past at this tourney they would usually dominate the game , but get beat by a hot goalie,, Sutter’s ego and no selection, camp worked out for him, he knew best,, old school.. still time but does not look good, team plays too much one on one shinny type game, YUK

Actually, last time Canada had a truly dominating team was when Crosby was on the team. Last time they won the cup it could have gone either way and the team wasn’t fantastic (save for Subban and Eberle). Since then all teams had consistently displayed lack of heart and intensity. Hockey Canada in general is a sh!t show more concerned with politics than anything else.

That 2005 year was ridiculous we beat Sweden and Finland 8-1 and in the final beat Russia 6-1. but we have had very good teams since, last year and this year are the weakest teams we have had. Eberle Subban, Tavares were fantastic teams to watch.. Canada Hockey needs a restructure of its thinking and or a Canadian national development program and or team.

Re various sobering points below about fewer games, NCAA vs CHL: is the problem that Hockey Canada complacently believes that in hockey — which of course we own — all we have to do is turn up, demonstrate our eternal global superiority, and tournaments will just hand us the gold?

Are we too arrogant, too Cherry-ized, to evaluate and maybe even emulate what other countries are doing to develop their players and make them more competitive and better equipped to swipe the gold from us who own it?

I think the leading minds in Canadian hockey are too conservative.
We need to get rid of dummies like Cherry and the HNIC morons who perpetuate these ideas. Hockey managers need to open up their minds to new trends in hockey that have helped teams like USA rise to prominence and develop their talent superbly well.

These “kids” SUCK! Plain and simple. It was evident from the beginning of the tournament. Canadian heart? If they are what Canadian heart it then Canada’s hockey is in deep sh!t. What a bunch of losers. Probably already dreaming about big $$$ they will earn in the NHL. What a shameful performance. No intensity, no heart, no desire, no skating, no nothing. Bunch of spoiled little punks.

Haha! I was waiting for you to pop by. I think this is one of the games I’ve felt almost like Timo.
This junior team is playing like crap today. They look lazy, complacent, and surprised that they are losing.

If you’re going to insert Briere into the line up the 4th line with 5-8 minutes is pointless. Either play him top 9 or leave him out of the line up. This doesn’t set him up for success (whether he was going to achieve it or not) when he is in this role. He is asking to get benched again with this assignment. But with Bournival and Moen maybe they can create something, thankfully for him he has Bournival playing the 5-8 minutes with him.

I think you should have had faced a least 3000 shots as a goalie before you are allowed to comment on what is a soft goal or on rebound control. On shots you can’t even see you are lucky there is a rebound.

In Europe they have fewer games and more time is spent on practicing basic skills like passing, stick handling etc. You can see the Euro skills in these departments are superior. Maybe the CHL should consider shortening the amount of games and using the extra time on developing these skills. We have the guts but there is a shortcoming in those departments.

The NHL too! Cut the season back to 72 games, as well as the preseason games, shorten the season and give more time off between games for practice time and injury recovery. We the fans would see a better product!

Nice job by Thorburn on the Jets going after Chara and taking him down. I love how every time Lucic or Chara gets it handed to them in a fight Jack Edwards makes the excuse the opposing player is a 4th liner or a bottom paring D. Douche bag!

Dumba, as his name suggests…and how does he have an A on his sweater? The only D man who is worse is Josh Morrisey. Both are ambitious but don’t have the poise to back it up. Sutter has managed to disengage Drouin and to a lesser extent Horvat. Also passing not there, is the ice that bad? Finns seem to be able to do it. The team is young yes I know. Maybe next year? Haven’t given up on them yet but they seem like the lesser team here today. I hope Sutter is deselected for next years team. Kind of had it with the scowling etc…

This team has no drive, no heart, no passion. They have a useless 4th line with Anderson and Gauthier. These guys need to be energy, momentum swingers, intimidating guys that skate hard and bang everything, in your face kind of line. Rychel can do this but he needs two guys to do it with him…Anderson and Gauthier are not these guys. Their D think they are fwds and want to skate the puck all over the ice, just like that last PP. Pouliot goes for a skate over the blue line and the fwds are wondering what to do and he turns it over and Finns send it out. Next up Dumba, same thing. So Morrissey figures he should give it a shot, one after the other, the EXACT same thing. Poorly picked team, poorly coached in my opinion.

Agreed.
That’s why it was interesting to read what Team USA wanted in their team.
They didn’t necessarily pick the most talented and skilled guys, they opted to go for the players that would best form a cohesive team that has chemistry, speed, and character.
Seems like this junior team was not put together that well. They don’t seem to play much of a team game. It’s like they are the Oilers.

Yes he does, he wasn’t noticeable in the quarterfinal but has been slick and shifty today. Easier to do against defensemen who have only interest in offense and moving the puck up the ice rather than defending. D-zone coverage has been horrid, and as you mention above has anyone been worse than Morrissey? Terrible. McDavid has been manhandled, and looked pouty and lazy but continues to get top 6 minutes which is also a head scratcher.